Teach Me the Ways of Stickfighting Gear, Oh Wise FMA Gurus

Abandoning my sense of safety in favor of adventure, Moose and I have decided to do a sort-of full contact stickfight at the Michigan v Ohio throwdown.
Furthermore, Moose is going to be using a shinai, and I'm going to be using a three section staff.
Yes, a three section staff. Not because I think it's an effective weapon, but because I think it's a fun weapon.
Neither of us has any particular experience with stickfighting. I used to do performance wushu, thus the three section cudgel. I used to fence a bit. One time, my karate instructor taught us the random bits of kendo he knew.
As the throwdown is on the 21st, I'm currently in the process of procurring gear, and I'd like some advice regarding it.
The two main things I'll be needing, as far as I can tell, are gloves and headgear. My housemate was going to give me some of his old lacrosse gear, but apparently his brother absconded with it to Colarado. As such, eBay.
I found these gloves earlier today, and they seem to be super cheap, which is nice:
-http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Ladies-Lacrosse-Lax-Padded-Gloves-Black-Sz-L_W0QQitemZ390026768502QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Defau ltDomain_0?hash=item390026768502&_trksid=p3286.c0. m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A15|39%3A1|240%3A1318
Their women's, but whatever. I'm more concerned by the apparent lack of hard protection on the outside of the hand like lacrosse gloves usually seem to have. I never played lacrosse/hockey, so I don't really know whether or not this amounts to a problem.
The other thing is headgear. As a generally ridiculous looking but still safety minded person, I had been considered getting a riot helmet replace my more traditional but now mostly broken bicycle helmet, and I was wondering if this would do the trick for stickfighting as well. They are designed to protect you from getting clubbed to death, last I checked.
I have some cloth knee and elbow pads, which hopefully should protect my joints from as horrific of blows as a shinai can inflict. I also may have a chainmail shirt finished by then, but I feel like that'd just be cheating.
Depending on how this goes/whether or not Moose and I manage to clumsily cripple each other, I may get further into stickfighting stuff.

I'm certainly no guru about FMA, but I would proffer that you should not only worry about protecting your head and face, but your throat as well. Take a hard errant shot to the Adam's apple and you'll know why. I don't think a riot helmet is adequate, especially with two relative amateurs going at it.

Any gloves should have plenty of mobility but protect the inside and outside of the wrists, too. Hockey gloves work well.

I think a shinai and padded 3ss should be ok with little to no padding unless you really want to hurt each other. Definitely use a mouth guard and cup though. Thats all I got... and this smiley.
:XXeyeslam

fullcontact escrima headgear, hockey gloves, elbow and knee pads with the hard plastic. And of course, a cup. I can find out specific gloves and gear if you like. I don't think the gloves pictured look adequate, from what I saw. Escrima headgear protects your throat well from my experience.

In Kendo we tell newbs to buy used hocky armor when they first start 'cause it's cheaper than kendo gear but largely effective. Also, a football chestpice is good. You could pick up a proper set for fifty-some odd dollars, which is a lot less than the hospital bills for reparing a blown knee.

Hocky hands, football chest, hocky legs, Kendo/football/hockey helmet, mouthgaurd, cup. That's what we use for our full contact stuff and we haven't had any real injuries to speak off as a result.

I would go with gloves more padded then the ones you found on eBay. I personally use some thick MMA gloves during sparring. Good for hand protection but still gives you mobility of the hands for grabs and what not. Not sure if that's important, since I'm not sure of the rules of your match.

Don't get a riot helmet. The one I was issued would be shitty because I've been hit in the throat a few times before. However, we have gloves that have lead shot on the outside of them. Look on Galls for some of those. I'm not sure how much they are. I think fencing head gear would be decent. And hockey gloves. You ever look at the dogbrothers site? They have the best hand guards. But they are specifically for stick fighting.